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In the Tradition of Modernism

How can one follow in the footsteps of modernism and still develop a typeface that is entirely contemporary? Aurèle Sack, typeface designer and graphic artist from Lausanne, answers that question with his font family 'AS Brown', which took him four years to develop. Specialists will immediately identify Sack's model and laypeople will probably sense something familiar: Sack refers in general to the grotesk typefaces of the early 20th century, specifically to the trailblazing design of Edward Johnston (1872-1944), who was commissioned to create a typeface for the Underground Electric Railways of London in 1913. Its unembellished clarity has set standards and it superbly demonstrates the influence of corporate design on the success of the company. But in designing 'AS Brown', Sack was not interested in revamping an existing font; he wanted to develop a typeface with a 'new and modern personality'. The regular cut is slightly larger than usual, making it especially legible, which also applies to the italics, slanted at a 10° angle. The typeface is available in four weights, from ultralight to bold, and three slants, and is already being used successfully, for instance in Das Magazin, the weekend newspaper supplement, where it appears in combination with 'AS Garamond' (developed in cooperation with the designer Jonas Vögeli). ECAL by Tschumi, an attractive publication about the new ECAL Campus by architect Bernard Tschumi, is also persuasively printed in 'AS Brown Regular' and designed by Aurèle Sack. Incidentally, Sack has close ties to the Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL). He graduated in Visual Communication in 2004 and now teaches courses there in typography and book design. His precision and perseverance are as impressive as his objective of developing a contemporary and versatile typeface that follows in the footsteps of modernism.Peter Stohler